Pearce's Yard - Lower Road
Pearce's Yard - Lower Road


In 1946 Arthur Pearce successfully applied to convert one building of a row of three structures next door to his home at Ivydene. He removed an existing storage building on the right and replaced it with a garage of the same height, with roller blind shutters, to house lorries for his haulage business. The office was based in Ivydene, which still has the large telephone bell on the outside wall that alerted workers in the yard to incoming calls.

At some stage the structure on the left was removed, creating access to the area behind, where a giant-sized bite was taken out of the rising bank to create a yard to accommodate a whole fleet of bright red TK Bedford trucks.

Many small farms in the village and beyond would have a small number of cows to provide milk. Early each morning they put their churns out on wooden platforms, like the one that remains outside Yew Tree Farm on Lower Road. Pearce's trucks, loaded with around 100 rattling churns, came a-clattering along and full churns were slid onto the lorry bed, leaving behind empty replacements for the following day.

It seems likely that Mr Pearce had a contract with Wilts United Dairies in Melksham, which organised the distribution of wholesale milk covering a 20-mile radius. Even in the harsh winter of 1962/63, villagers remember there wasn't a day when the lorries didn't venture out. Having completed their rounds, the lorries would line up on Lower Road waiting to come back into the yard to be washed down for the next day.

Pearce's Transport was one of the main employers of the village, large enough to hold an annual evening dinner for employees. Today people whose parents drove the lorries treasure those memories of the rare occasions when they saw their parents get “all dressed up”. Christmas parties were also held for employees’ children.

Arthur Pearce passed away in 1972, aged 69. In the last years of the 20th century permission was granted to build four properties at Ashton Coombe within the footprint of his yard.




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